The first part can be read here.
SWITCH GEARS TIME AND AGAIN
Once the much needed acceleration is provided for the innings to prosper, the batsmen can switch gears at their will. Some batsmen go on top gear once they cross their fifties and never look back. Yuvraj Singh and Kevin Pietersen belong to such a class. Then there are some batsmen who play according to the situation. Once they set their eye in, they’d plan to make it as big as possible. Tendulkar of the 20s would belong to the former category, while Tendulkar of the 30s would belong to the latter.
While he capitalizes on the chances of scoring against weaker bowlers in such circumstances, he also plays his cards safe against the opponents’ best bowlers. What this ensures is that his team would score runs at a fair clip and at the same time make sure that the opponents don’t walk away with ascendancy.
During this phase of the innings, the body will take toil on the batsman. Cramps and tiredness creep in and in turn, would also cause a possible slump in concentration. This is when a batsman needs to go on-and-off regularly.
This is because it would be very tough to concentrate totally as it would tire the mind and the body. By this point of time, a batsman would be in his 80s and 90s and would have batted close to three hours. In such situations, it’s safer to tick away with singles and rejuvenate as much as possible on the non-striker’s end. Rehydration will also help.
If a batsman feels that he can’t last for another half-hour or so, it’s worth taking the risk of scoring quick boundaries. The reason is pretty straight-forward. The batsman, by this point of time would have everything in him; the timing, the power, the placement and the assortment of strokes. All these elements would work in congruence in such a period in the innings. He just needs to find the sweet-spot of the bat regularly. More often than not the batsman would succeed in clearing the fence.
In all other cases, the innings must again begin from zero once the landmark is accomplished. It again begins from the first with just one difference. The batsman is set and doesn’t need to find his timing and touch as he already possesses it.
Photo courtesy - Michael Steele/Getty Images AsiaPac
BEST FRIEND IN THE MIDDLE
Eleven players are waiting to defeat you in the middle and in such a scenario there is only one partner who you can trust entirely. Cricket is a completely different sport in this perspective. Although, there is equal number of players on both sides, on the field at one point of time, there are just two fighting against eleven opponents. When batting in the middle, your team-mate is your best friend. Understanding and excellent communication would help batsmen grow together. Some of the most prolific scorers tend to score really well, when they play together. It almost looks like everything that these batsmen do together is in total sync and everyone else would feel that things are in harmony. Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly flourished together for a long time. Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir fed on each other’s success. Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni make a deadly middle order partnership. Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist is another famous pair of batsmen who score really when batting together. Even Symonds loves playing with Hayden.
When playing under alien conditions, the trust vested on your partner is very important. This is because, a batsman may not be in the best of touch and would prefer to stay on the other side of the wicket and get a better feel of the situation. When Gambhir started of his remarkable run, Sehwag’s blistering batting gave him the license to spend time and stitch his innings together. That paved the way for Gambhir to enjoy a wonderful year (2008) in international cricket as India’s opening batsmen in all three formats. Symonds’ comeback into test cricket (2006 – Melbourne) is as much his effort as much as Hayden’s. If not for that hundred in the Ashes test, Symonds test career would never have blossomed. A friend, a partner is very important even in cricket.
Setting up targets and playing a game inside a game could be a very useful tactic that batsmen can use to play long innings. Taking up one over at a time, a session at a time and setting up realistic goals is the name of the game.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
Apart from fighting within, a batsman also has to endure external influences and keep most of them out of the context when he plays every single ball. There is a famous cricketing quote – “Play the ball, not the bowler.”
This is very important because most of today’s bowlers fancy sledging. And they believe it’s a way to intrude into a batsman’s concentration and break it into pieces. In such situations, it’s very easy for batsmen to respond to the bowlers with words as well as with the bat.
It’s always advisable to just ignore the comments that a bowler throws in and just play the next ball according to its merit. If it deserves the treatment, punish the leather with disdain. If the ball commands respect, do give respect and just wait for the next one to pounce on. It’s in such situations that batsmen most often lose the plot.
There is another genre of batsmen who love when they are sledged. They perform exceedingly well whenever a few words are exchanged. Kevin Pietersen, Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan (remember the jelly-bean incident) belong to such an illustrious group. These are some of the cricketers who make the bowlers’ and fielders’ eat their words.
Crowd can never be controlled and the amount of pressure they could add to the eventual performance of a batsman is very high. Booing is a part and parcel of visiting batsman’s life, especially for Australians in England, for English and Harbhajan in Australia and for Kevin Pietersen in South Africa.
Trusting your partner and keeping a regular chat away from cricket could help when twenty-thousand people are crying for your wicket. Such a technique will effectively keep you away from anything that’s happening 90 metres away from you. This crowd behavior, again would not sustain for long. It’d be there until there is pressure applied by the opponents. Once the runs start flowing, everyone goes silent, including the crowd.
There are also circumstances when there is too much pressure to handle. Breathing consciously is one of those useful techniques to overcome pressure. Sehwag uses a creative technique to dispel pressure. According to Viru, he sings bhajans and at times some movie songs to keep him away from pressure. That also helps him concentrate better.
Batting and scoring lots of runs is very similar to what an engineer, an architect and a mason, would do together in building a beautiful home. There is technique, there is art and there is hard-work in every single hundred batsmen all over the world score.
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Author: Ananthasubramanian – Seasoned Keeda
Has written 29 Articles, posted 5 Comments, 0 Posts, has 7 Fans and was thanked 19 Times
I agree communicating with your partner has utmost importance ! cause they mutually can encourage or discourage the other … after all every game is psychology
Crowd has positive effects too …. batsmen sometimes feed on the energy of the crowd don’t you think
Hey Anantha, the concept of friendship in the middle is very impressive … thanks dude….
@ Raje – Yes. Indeed. Crowd can give you positive vibe also. India do extremely well in Indian conditions. One of the big reasons is the crowd and their vociferous support! But, that turns up against the opponents!!
@ Robin – Thanks!
very right !! Inzy never used to communicate well with his partners thats why is always run out
Nice Write Up Bud!